South Korea's impeached president denied all charges and pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in her first court appearance at Seoul Central District Court. Former conservative party leader Park Guen-hye was indicted on 18 charges including accepting $52 million in bribes from large corporations such as Samsung. The scandal has led …

After a six-month legal dispute over the right to use patents and other intellectual property, Apple and Nokia reached a settlement Tuesday that covers all ends of the lawsuits filed. The suit came as a result of Apple stating that they would no longer pay to use Nokia's patents, many of which are built …

The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on Tuesday alleging that Mississippi is failing to uphold its obligations under a federal law that enabled it to rejoin the union after the Civil War. The law required the state to create a "uniform education system of free public schools" that would serve all children, regardless of …

A UN panel released a draft treaty in Geneva on Monday that would ban the use of all nuclear weapons. States that are party to the treaty are obligated never to develop, produce, manufacture, acquire or use "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion." The draft is supported by more than 130 non-nuclear …

Texas' Republican-controlled Senate gave final approval to a bill that would enable publicly funded foster care and adoption agencies to refuse the placement of children with non-Christian, unmarried or gay prospective parents due to religious objections. The "Freedom to Serve Children Act" was passed early Monday and will now go to Governor Greg Abbott for his …

The High-Level Group on the Health and Human Rights of Women, Children and Adolescents released a report Tuesday imploring world leaders to allocate 5 percent of their country's GDP in "public health spending," according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Tarja Halonen, former president of Finland …

A Gambian court issued an order to freeze former president Yahya Jammeh's remaining assets on Monday. Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said that the order was "necessitated after the discovery of unlawful withdrawals" between 2006 and 2016 that possibly totaled $50 million. The order affects 131 properties, 88 bank accounts, 14 companies associated with the …

The Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) filed a lawsuit on Monday to challenge a recently passed bill that they claim unlawfully targets immigrants. One provision of Senate Bill 4 (SB4) permits authorities to demand immigration or citizenship status from any individual suspected to be an undocumented person in an attempt to eliminate sanctuary cities. …

A trial over the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey began at a prison courtroom in Sincan on Monday. Two hundred of the 221 defendants in the case were marched into the courtroom before a group of protesters, some of whom threw nooses and demanded the death penalty. Many of the protesters had lost relatives during …

UN expert on freedom of religion Ahmed Shaheed stated on Monday that Houthi de facto authorities in Yemen must end harassment against the Bahá'í community in Sana'a. Shaheed's statement was prompted by reports of increased arbitrary arrests and detentions against the Bahá'í community. In addition to demanding Bahá'í community members be released, he also said that …

The US Supreme Court held unanimously Monday in Water Splash, Inc. v. Menon that the Hague Service Convention does not prohibit service of process by mail. The purpose of The Hague Service Convention is to simplify, standardize and generally improve the process of serving documents abroad. The court analyzed the text of Article 10(a), …

The human rights situation in Belarus has seen a dramatic deterioration, according to a report published Monday from Miklos Haraszti, the UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus. The report notes numerous instances of rights abuses, beginning with the suppression of peaceful protests in March over a law imposing a tax on people who are not employed …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Sunday that the state of emergency temporarily placed on the country after last year's failed coup would continue until the country reached "welfare and peace." The state of emergency gives Erdoğan and his cabinet nearly unlimited power as it allows them to make policy decisions without parliamentary oversight or review by …